


life under the southern longleaf pines

by majoline



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Derek Hale Can Have Nice Things, Derek Hale Feels, Dogs, M/M, Magical Realism, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Derek, Self-Indulgent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-17
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 01:19:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14683440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/majoline/pseuds/majoline
Summary: The Life and Times of Derek Hale, a guy who needs a break and would rather live somewhere where no one has ever heard of werewolf hunters.--maybe he should have looked for somewhere less magical though, oops.





	1. the setup

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Green](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Green/gifts).



> This fic takes place, uh, sometime after canon starts. *cough* 
> 
> Inspired by the amazing number of dogs with fancy collars I have to shoo off my porch, for pity's sake. I almost named this after the live oaks, but let's be real, Hattiesburg is much more about the pine trees.
> 
> Dedicated to Green, without whom I would not have started writing again. Thanks for the inspiration!
> 
> I'm expecting this to be about five to seven chapters; we will see what happens once I type up the rest of my notebook.

Once upon a time, when Derek was feeling extra trapped by the smothering weight of all of the shit that had happened to him in Beacon Hills, he caught himself scrutinizing Stiles’s Wall of Weird (honestly, Derek couldn’t believe Stiles wanted to admit to watching Smallville). The pièce de résistance of Stiles’s obsessive researching was a map of all of the supernatural happenings Stiles thought could be legit. Derek couldn’t have stopped his eyes from wandering around the representation of the continental US like a thirsty man in a desert, fantasizing about what it would be like to live where no hunters were, and where none would ever think to look for him.

Derek had kept his hopes and dreams safe inside his mind, and never spoke them, and no one had ever been curious enough about him as a person to ask him why he and Laura had picked New York of all places. And now after the unrelenting horror of the past few years, Derek was so tired, more tired than he was after the fire. He wanted to be safe again. He wanted to relax. He wanted to be just another face in the crowd. But there was no way in hell Derek wanted to confront his old friends, or Laura’s choral buddies, or the pack that had taken them in. How could he face them, when even the goofy souvenir shops held precious memories of Laura? He was doing his best to tamp down his grief because if he started crying, Derek knew he’d never stop.

He knew he couldn’t face the place where he’d almost rebuilt his life. 

So he picked the next best thing: a place completely the opposite of New York. A place where he could be alone in the woods. A place free from the supernatural.

After he’d transferred his credits to USM and had *seen* Hattiesburg, Mississippi, with his own two eyes, he’d realized he had been a little naïve. He’d driven up from I-10 and while, yes, there was fields and country, the entire area was much more built up than he’d realized. His little retreat into the woods was a refurbished trailer located just north of the city limits. It was pretty far away from the weirdly sprawling town. His new home was all alone down a hill by a creek at the end of the lane -- but only after he’d passed a sizable neighborhood with attractive houses, even if it was also full of cows and horses and donkeys, to get there.

And he’d gone to get his keys from the couple living at the top of the hill, only to realize they were druids once they’d scrambled out onto their porch and shooed their guard wasps away. Fuck his life.

The supernatural had found him anyway.


	2. in the aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Officially updating on Wednesdays, both to let me type up and edit and to give me the chance to calm down after posting. *shakes a fist at anxiety* 
> 
> ...This fic might end up a few more chapters than I was planning, but that's okay, right? :)

Derek couldn’t get his hands to stop trembling on the steering wheel, and he had to cut the engine halfway down the hill. There was nothing but woods and his house at the end of it all, so it didn’t matter that he parked in the middle of the lane and threw on his emergency brake.

Derek rolled down the windows to let in the humid, fresh breeze and tried to stop freaking out now that he was alone. He’d been cool and collected in their presence, every bit the proud werewolf his mother had been, and he’d made it through the introductions without running away and screaming and hopping in the car to drive back to Beacon Hills, and forget about leaving ever again.

They’d taken one look at him and figured out he was a werewolf and had reacted -- oddly. Differently than expected, he should say.

“I’m Daisy, and this is Ernest, and now I understand why we got a hit on that ad in the first place. I was honestly never expecting anyone to take us up on the offer, but we just had to try. Somehow everyone that makes it out here is pagan, I mean, country.” They all laughed at Daisy’s joke, Derek nervously. 

She launched into the explanations of payment and responsibilities and thankfully waved around printouts with that same information. Derek couldn’t focus on the details while he was trying to concentrate on his breathing. While she was waving the pages around in his face, Ernest went to sit in the car, and Derek would have thought that was to get away from him, except he’d seen Ernest’s cane, and the man didn’t smell scared or sound frightened. 

Ernest was calm, and he was hungry, and he shouted at Derek, “Feel free to come over anytime, as long as you text Daisy first.”

Derek didn’t understand what his body was doing. Why the hell was he so anxious? Derek had lived through so much shit that two unarmed, not threatening, out of shape Druids would be no match for him. Nothing was unnaturally magic smelling. He didn’t sense anything to be wary about. There was nothing tense in the air. It didn’t matter. Derek was still sweating through his shirt trying to keep calm. Daisy waved him off, saying, “Sorry about standing outside, but we’re about to leave for dinner. You do eventually build up a tolerance to the weather around here! I’m not sure how you’ll handle the mosquitoes, lemme get you my extra can of bug spray, you look exhausted.” Derek felt too full of adrenaline to be tired, but he knew that every death, every failed attempt at providing for his pack was on his face. Maybe he’d just hit the end of his rope.

He signed the rental paperwork on the back of their Prius. He watched them pull away, tossed the can of bug off and the folder of paperwork into the passenger seat, and tried to drive down the hill before they came back.

He calmed down about twenty minutes later, and drove the last few yards down the hill, and pulled up to the beautiful lot. It was a tiny house, clearly loved, abutting a massive forest. Derek could hear the creek farther down in the valley and felt himself start to relax.

The tiny place was a mishmash of a trailer with an additional bathroom, bedroom, huge closet, and little area for the included washer and dryer. The bathroom was lit by outdoor LEDs designed to twinkle slowly and made his peeing extra existential. Half of his brain was pleased with the deal, and the opposite half was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The woods felt good. Welcoming. And he’d just figured out why he had been so drawn to the ad. He could feel how much the entire neighborhood loved how it was. The whole forest felt like his family’s one tree nemeton. 

He dropped his few bits of luggage inside and went to sit on the porch long enough to welcome the morning sky. The longer he sat, the more he could feel how many people lived by were also magical and felt a small stirring of hope. He was fucked up, but maybe soon he’d be okay. 

Maybe he could be safe. Maybe he could stay.


	3. a few months later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has the glimpse of my neighborhood that was my inspiration to start writing again, so hopefully, I pulled it off.
> 
> Thank you for all of the kudos and the comments so far! I hope you enjoy this update too ♥

Nothing terrible had happened to him (yet), so Derek settled into the life of an awkward college student. Maybe it was all of the magic, perhaps it was no one being all that interested in yet another supernatural being, but he hadn’t been harassed or even noticed. And for now, Derek was counting his blessings, since merely getting to class on time was taking up all of his mental energy. He honestly didn’t remember school being this hard the first time around. 

Derek didn’t know why the hell he’d originally thought his current schedule was a good idea. His Monday/Wednesday/Friday class, History of English, was at 10:30 am and his Saturday class, Overview of World Poetry, was at 11:30 am, and all of that would be fine *provided he was living on campus*. (Honestly, he was mostly grumpy at the fact that he had yet to learn not to schedule classes so early. Derek had to learn this *again* for it to stick, sigh.)

After running errands and eating dinner on campus, he was finally driving home at sunset on a Saturday, and entirely foregoing traffic by traveling up and around to get back. Of course, this meant he got to pass by all of the sites of the raucous parties he was going to go home and pretend weren’t happening that night. The dragstrip was already packed, and further down the road, once he turned into his little neighborhood, he noticed that the Wiccans were already deep into beer pong and drunken basketball. He sighed some more and crested the hill to find that the local swingers had already turned on all of their outdoor accent lights, promising a party that would start only after everyone’s parties had died down. Joy.

Next door to the swingers lived his druidic landlords, and thankfully one of them was outside crossing the lawn. For some reason, they had multiple buildings on the property, and you could always find Daisy walking around the makeshift courtyard day or night. Derek crawled to a stop to flag her down.

“Hey, Derek. The mail lady wooshed around, and she went down to yours, surprisingly enough. Can’t tell if that means you got anything though.”

“Thanks, Daisy. Here are my rent and utilities.” He pulled down the envelope from the sun visor. “I wanted to give you this before I forget.”

She laughed. “Thanks for being so conscientious. I need a pick me up like this, darn deer have gotten into the garden again. You know, if you ever wanna earn a little cash or need extra time on the rent, you could bring us some deer. Or bunnies if you wanna come over for some hasenpfeffer.”

Derek frowned at her. “I know I’m, uh, different, but I’m not that kind of wolf. Your boyfriend already gave me the talk about hunting in the neighborhood.”

Daisy shrugs, “For the record, we're just worried you’ll stir up the bobcats or the coyotes with the howling. And believe you me, wait until you hit turkey season out here. People shooting at shit at all hours, and you don't want to be the cryptid they drag up on youtube. But seriously, keep it in mind, okay? You could use a bow and arrow like the rest of us if you think your wolf is too wild. Bambi’s gonna eat us out of house and home at this rate.” She stepped back and waved him off, and Derek was all too happy to oblige her. 

He’d always thought that it was just Dr. Deaton and Ms. Morell being off, but no, he’d now met enough Druids to know that they were all, even the nice ones, more bloodthirsty than he could stomach. Daisy and Ernest were friendly enough until you saw her sharing her coke with hornets or him telling the eagles to eat the neighborhood pests. Derek was a werewolf, and even he didn’t want to deal with the natural world that much.

He pulled up to his door and got out, and let himself breathe. Right now it was quiet, he couldn’t smell any cows, and he could pretend he was alone. But this little stretch of wonderful wasn’t his family’s property, and soon enough he could hear his landlords leave to go out for dinner. He didn’t have a lot of time before all the cacophony started tonight, and he was determined to relax while he could. He had had a test earlier today, and he’d done all his homework, so there was only him, and the forest, and -- a whimper?

Hiding in the undergrowth beside his mailbox was a sad, shivering dog. Derek recognized the poor thing; he’d seen the dog around. This was the first time he’d seen the dog without a collar though. He looked up at Derek, hopefully, and any thoughts of bundling the dog up and calling Animal Control melted way.

Derek rubbed his face, “I’m such a sap.”

That said, he went back to his car and dug around for his emergency blanket. The least Derek could do was to warm the dog up and check him over. The unfortunate thing looked more bedraggled than usual, and Derek sighed because he’d bet the dog had gotten caught by a wild animal when he’d been let out to wander around.

Derek didn’t yet comprehend the culture here in his new home. But something he knew he would never understand was how cavalierly people treated their dogs around the neighborhood. The only fences were around the livestock, and none of the rest of the properties were fenced off at all. Dogs simply were let loose, and sometimes even deliberately dropped off in the road to wander and be picked up later. Derek found himself aghast at the callousness, especially after he’d changed with his first full moon in his new house and seen for himself the number and variety of predators the sleepy hills and valleys held. 

Would his owners even miss him? Was the collar missing intentionally? When the dog whimpered again, Derek sat the thoughts aside and went to bundle the dog up and take him inside.


	4. early sunday morning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *slides in under the wire* Okay, so, this just took me all morning today, but here you go! I made it \o/
> 
> Thank you for all the comments and kudos, they truly make my day ♥

Derek found himself running through the mist again. He knew it was a dream. It had been his most recurring dream since the fire. He was running through the mist, and wolves were running with him. More wolves joined him each time than when the dreams had first started. His family. His pack. He was running through the mist, desperately, trying to get away from a nameless, formless something. He struggled to stay far away from it, but it still leaned close to breathe on his neck.

As they gained ground and left the menacing creature far behind, the laments would start. The howling of the pack around him would be full of sadness, but he couldn’t howl back. His body was human in the dream, and it took everything he had in him not to stumble and fall. He couldn’t sing in reply to them, even if he wanted to. Did they even know he was there?

And, like always, he’d fall behind anyway into the dark.

Derek was bracing himself for the ground, finally, to fall away beneath his feet when --

\--a small paw *physically* touched him, while he was still dreaming.

Derek thrashed in terror, struggling to open his eyes through the exhaustion. His mind cleared, and he jackknifed upright, fully awake now. He sat there panting harshly and looked down at the shaggy long haired mop of a dog that had kicked him in his sleep. The dog was surely dreaming happily, running through an imaginary field with a grin.

Derek shook his head at how ridiculous he was, everything about this was funny. He flopped backward and burst out laughing. He couldn’t stop, even when said dog grumbled and buried his head under the blankets to go back to sleep.

Derek eventually rolled out of bed, still chuckling, a smile on his face for once.

#

Derek fed the dog some of the mixes of ground meats he made himself for the time when the full moon drew near. He figured it’d be acceptable for a dog to eat at least for a day. He wasn’t entirely sure what he should do about dog food if the dog stayed with him, but Derek could cross that bridge when he came to it.

Derek watched the dog chow down and leaned against the counter in the small galley kitchen with his latest cup of coffee. He could feel the restless night he’d had catching up to him, clouding over his thoughts and making him sluggish, and drank more of his coffee. It was going to be a two pot day.

He fixed another pot of coffee and threw unfrosted strawberry pop-tarts into the toaster. He was hungrier than that, but they’d do for now. And it wasn’t like anyone would pick on him and how much he ate now. Plus, one of the lovely things about living away from, uh, everyone, was also the distinct lack of comments on his favorite flavor of pop-tart.

“But funnily enough not the best thing about living out here,” Derek commented aloud after he finished eating. The dog's ears perked up, as though he thought Derek was talking to him and took it as a sign to come over for pets. Derek gladly scratched him behind his ears. This whole pet ownership deal was growing on him already. He could see himself enjoying having a dog around.

The dog trotted away, and Derek took the opportunity to gulp down the rest of his cup of coffee. He turned to stare out of the kitchen window, watching the birds and the squirrels already gathering around the yard. He was drawn out of his nature watching when the dog started to scratch at the front door. 

Derek was impressed; the dog was trained. He put down his cup, and walked over, opened the door to let the dog out, and hurriedly slipped on his running shoes. The extra coffee could wait, a run would be far more invigorating, to be honest. He warmed up while the dog wandered around the bushes. When he trotted back, Derek was ready to go.

As if on cue, they both set off together at the same time up the hill. It felt great, with a gentle cooling breeze cutting through what was already pretty hot and muggy. They were in sync, side by side, hitting the ground in time with each other. They rounded the corner together, finally getting up the hill, about to hit their stride --

\--until the dog broke off at the next corner, dashing away, barking happily. Derek came to a stop and watched as the dog ran right through the dog door on the porch and inside.

“What the fuck,” Derek said.

"I didn't realize he was your dog," Daisy said and startled the heck out of Derek. He jumped up and away from her, flashing his eyes and baring his teeth. 

As soon as he registered it was her, he shook it off, and his features shifted back to human. Daisy had backed up, right up against the car, clutching a cupcake carrying case to her chest.

“Holy fuck, Derek, you startled me!”

“You startled me first!” Derek barked back.

They stood there, not saying anything, staring at each other, panting harshly. Daisy recovered first, lowering the carrier down, allowing Derek to see the contents. “Those aren’t cupcakes,” he said inanely.

“No, they’re chocolate chip muffins. Uh, they’re Mary Berry’s recipe, if you wanted to come in and have one. They’re fresh; I just made them for breakfast.” Daisy said. She shifted around to stand upright and plant herself firmly down as if to wait him out.

Honestly, Derek wasn’t freaked out enough to want to pass up homemade baked goods. Pop-tarts were always better in his memory than the reality, and he was still hungry. “Sure,” he shrugged, just in case she didn’t mean it.

Daisy smiled and chuckled. “It’s honestly no problem; I made a lot. And for repayment, you can tell me what that was about, with the dog.” She spun on her heel and walked away, clearly expecting him to follow. Other people might have a problem with her attitude, but Derek didn’t mind, she reminded him of his sister. He preferred people who knew what they wanted, anyway.


	5. a visit and a challenge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, an update! Sorry about the break, but everything that could go wrong did go wrong. No internet for a while, no computer access, and then no word processor access, and I can't find my notebook, lmao. I mean, everything. I was so relieved when I finally was able to write last night.
> 
> Because I didn't have my notebook, I had to do this off of vague recollections of what I wanted the chapter to be like, which is why the challenge bit has more in common with r/nosleep than anything else.
> 
> Anyway, I appreciate all of the kudos and comments, and I hope you enjoy! :)

“Honey,” Daisy shouted, “I made cupcakes!” To Derek she said, “Here sit, I’ll get you a plate.”

Derek watched as Daisy divided the contents of the carrier between three plates, and left two of those plates to carry the other down the hallway. Usually, werewolf hearing would mean he could hear them, but between the air filter, the two air conditioners, and whatever video game Ernest was playing, it was a struggle to listen to them talk about him.

He didn’t want to listen to how worried Daisy was about him anyway.

Derek had no idea what he was doing with his life. He was covered in dog hair from a little mop of a dog that had seemed to like him and then ran off. He had homework due that he only vaguely remembered how to do from the last time he was in college, which was over a decade ago. And, speaking of which, he was thirty-one, he was a hunted werewolf, and he wasn’t even in a safe space, no matter how secure the magic in the forest made him feel. 

The naive child he had been would have *sworn* that nothing could defeat the castle that was the Preserve, but now bitter experience had shown him that the truth that had always stared up at him from history books: that nothing was unassailable. He twitched with the remembered pain and fought down the urge to howl his tears to the sky. Crying over spilled milk wouldn’t do him any good anyway.

A gentle fresh breeze like the wind across snow while the sun is warm, gently woke him from where he’d dozed off staring up at the ceiling. Derek looked over, and saw that Daisy had brought two glasses of water over, and had set down a large tumbler with snowflakes painted on it filled with ice, and what smelled like salt and cinnamon, and had magic softly swirling out of it.

“I figured you’d rather be brought gently back,” she said softly and pushed his plate closer to him. “You’ll need the energy, eat the muffins.”

They ate in silence. The muffins were better than Derek was expecting. Nothing had tasted right ever since the fire, but lately, he’d begun to suspect that was because he wasn’t a great cook and his dad had never made them ramen packets or ravioli from a can, which were Derek’s fall back foods when he was too tired to cook properly.

Derek finished his last muffin and resolved to be neighborly. He was so tired of being tired and scared. Honestly, everything about his emotions felt ridiculous once he calmed down.

He asked, “Mary Berry’s recipe, you said?”

Daisy smiled and said, “Do you have Netflix?”

#

Daisy insisted they watch at least one episode of the Great British Bake Off before she sent him home. She’d also lent him a cookbook and a fiction book both about Mary Berry, which he thought was a little much, but it was better than what he usually did, which was homework and mindless training.

Instead of asking about the dog, Daisy kept telling the tv how to make bread. Hilariously, she was so worked up about it, she kept at it even after they’d finished the episode and they were walking back to Derek’s.

“Bread is so easy! I don’t understand why none of them use thermometers! When you think the bread is done, you pull it out and see what temperature it is! If it’s not 190 degrees Fahrenheit yet, the bread goes back into the oven! I honestly don’t see what’s so difficult --” Daisy was cut off by a tree limb that fell right into their path narrowly missing them both.

Derek shivered and started backing up. The pressure from the magic all around them *wanted* something, and he didn’t want it to be him it took.

“Derek? What on Earth are you doing?” Daisy had spun around to face him, hands on her hips.

“Can’t you feel it?” He bit out. 

She rolled her eyes at him, and said, “So tell me, have you ever lived someplace that wasn't your family's?”

Bewildered, Derek replied, “I lived in the city, New York City, why?”

“That doesn’t count.” Daisy gestured him forward, “Come on, Magical Forests 101. Stare forward, don’t make eye contact, we gotta keep walking, and when you add on to what I say, *mean it*.” She hopped over the limb, raised her hands up, and said, “We want to walk to Derek’s house, and we respect you. Let us pass.”

Derek’s eyes darted around, seeing nothing to make eye contact with, and got out, “Uh, I respect you too.” He jogged a bit to catch up to Daisy who was determinedly walking down the street, and hissed, “What was that?”

“Magical Forests 101: state your intentions the first time through, and keep walking. Don’t look away from the path. Get inside as quickly as you can. If the forest is old enough or cranky enough, you could always need to restate your intentions and leave, even if you’ve been here a million times before.”

“Wait, what? But I never had to do that back at my family’s nature preserve,” Derek said, trying not to look around.

“That’s because your forest thought you belonged there. This one doesn’t know you yet, so it challenged us. Keep your eyes forward. I’ve never been tempted off of the asphalt here, but I’ve heard stories, and I don’t want to discover we can be lured the hard way.”

Derek had heard of similar stories, and honestly, he didn’t know if werewolves could get into the same predicaments with the nature spirits as humans, and he didn’t want to be the were who found out.

“Do you want to stay and watch the next episode at mine for now? I’ll have to run errands later and do my homework, but I have time for one more.” Derek murmured.

“That sounds great,” Daisy said without looking at him. “If you go shopping or whatever right after the show, you can drop me off at mine, and neither of us has to get out of the car much.”

They both sighed in relief as his little trailer came into view and ran up the driveway. When they got to the awning, and Derek fumbled the door open, Daisy tugged on his arm and said, “Now we have to say ‘thank you.’” She turned around and called out, “Thank you!”

Derek cupped his hands around his mouth and called, “Thank you!” too.

And gratefully, they piled inside and slammed the door, Derek locking it firmly shut.


End file.
